At $175,000, Is This 1985 Renault R5 Turbo 2 A Beast Of A Bargain?

According to its seller, original cars like today’s Nice Price or No Dice R5 Turbo 2 “almost never surface.” Not only has this one popped up for air, but that air is relatively clean as it has been BAR certified. Let’s see if it’s worth going down deep into a pocket to meet its asking price.

Fall, it seems, is upon us. The mornings now greet with cool, overcast skies, and the trees are starting to go all Technicolor. The season’s cooler days and nippy nights make for perfect convertible weather. There is, after all, a particular bougie pleasure to driving around with the top down and the heater on.

Unfortunately, the 2004 BMW M3 convertible that passed our way yesterday was deemed an unacceptable option by many of you in the comments. As a drop top, it was viewed as more of a cruiser than a bruiser, seemingly wasting the application of the S54’s 333 ponies and making its manual gearbox swap feel egregious. The final nail in its coffin was a $14,500 asking price. Considering that a cheaper E46 convertible—a 330ci, say—might make a better, and cheaper, option, the M3’s 58% ‘No Dice’ loss seemed not out of line with the opinions offered.

So, my wife and I have had this ongoing argument, since… oh, I don’t know, the dawn of time, I suppose. It’s regarding the proper pronunciation of the name Renault. I espouse that it should rightfully be pronounced ‘ray-know,’ while she, a longtime fan of author Mary Renault, is of the mind that the less sonorous ‘ray-nalt’ is the way to go.

Regardless of how you say it—the right way or my wife’s way—it’s undeniable that Renault, the carmaker, has built some very cool cars over the years. One of the most iconic of those was the R5 supermini, introduced in 1972 and sold in the U.S. under the cheekily fun name “Le Car.”

Out of that sprung numerous sporting models under the auspices of grabbing some of the ‘hot hatch’ action made popular by Volkswagen’s introduction of the Golf GTI. The culmination of this evolution from timid and yet twee city car to sports demon is the R5 Turbo, a mid-engine romper-stomper built by Renault to compete on the world rally stage and homologated over two generations as a road car to abide by the FIA Group 3 and 4 racing rules. With this series of cars, Renault and the designers at Bertone took an icon and turned it into a legend.

As noted, there were two generations of R5 Turbo, generally differentiated these days as the ‘Turbo 1’ and ‘Turbo 2.’ All of the FIA homologation requirements were fulfilled by the Turbo 1 cars, and by the time the Turbo 2 hit the streets, Audi’s all-conquering AWD Quattro rally cars were making two-wheel-drive racers about as relevant as a horse and buggy.

The main differences between the Turbo 1 and 2 are in the interior. The first series of cars had a wild, Bertone-designed two-tone interior with special seats, dashboard, and a steering wheel with spokes at three and six o’clock. For cost savings, Renault toned down the Turbo 2’s interior, using standard seats, the regular R5’s dash, and a three-spoke wheel.

This 1985 Renault R5 Turbo 2 has that dulled-down cabin, but that only makes it slightly less audacious overall than the first series of cars.

Under the rear hatch lies a 1.4-liter inline Cléon Fonte inline four that’s woken up by a Garrett T3 turbocharger. While the engine in the Turbo cars remains an old-school OHV design, it managed a solid 158 horsepower and 163 pound-feet of torque in street clothes. That’s all routed through a five-speed manual gearbox taken from the R30 and spun 180°, feeding some seriously fat rear rubber under the widened wheel arches.

While never sold in the U.S. officially, there was a thriving industry for R5 Turbo Federalizations. This car is one of those: imported and converted, according to the ad, by a company called Sunbelt/Weber. It goes one further, though, as it has also apparently been BAR (Bureau of Automotive Repair) Certified to be emissions compliant in the state of California, which is known for its super strict emissions standards. It even wears cheeky ‘L CAR NOT’ California license plates. 

The car has a mere 24,000 miles on the clock, with, according to the seller, less than 1,000 of those miles added in the past 23 years. It also comes with what is described as a ‘banker’s box of books, manuals, and records.’ Those include maintenance records that total over $15,000 in receipts. The seller describes the car’s condition as ‘collector grade,’ and the pictures do back up that assertion. The bodywork looks to be solid, although with more orange peel in the red paint than one might expect. 

We don’t get much of a peek at either the engine compartment or the interior. Still, the single shot of the latter shows the car to sport an Alpine stereo head unit, shearling covers on the seats, and what looks to be a pair of toenail clippers in the cubby ahead of the shifter. On the plus side of the equation, the title is clean and the car carries current tags.

Perhaps not so much of a plus, this Turbo 2 sports a price tag—$175,000—that would buy you something like 100 standard R5s, if that many even still exist on the road. That being said, when was the last time any of us saw a Turbo 2 up for sale, much less one slumming on the Craigslists? In its favor, as the seller says, this is “A chance to own a piece of homologation history — the car that put Renault on the rally map.” On the downside, it kind of got lost as a rally contender, even with that map.

What’s your take on this R5 Turbo 2 and that eye-watering $175,000 price tag? Does that actually seem reasonable, considering the rarity and coolness factor the car possesses? Or is that too much cash for a has-been rally racer wannabe?

You decide!

Los Angeles, California, Craigslist, or go here if the ad disappears.

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